Extended Theory of Planned Behavior for Green Purchase Intention

Abstract

The rapid population growth with increased economic development and technological progress has provided more conveniences to human lives but also posed many challenges to the environment such as air pollution, climate change and global warming. It is undeniable that sustainable development is becoming a global concern to prevent further deterioration of the environment with aims to strike a balance between environmental, social, and economic development. Now, green environmental protection has become a new trend to reduce the harms to the environment and help organizations to reduce operating or production costs to get more positive publicity. Following this trend, green consumption has also risen globally to prevent further damages to the environment. Consequently, the promotion of environmentally friendly products is one of the effective means of reducing the negative impact on the environment to achieve sustainable development. Clearly, it is important to understand the intent of consumers to buy environmentally friendly products as the willingness to buy green products will maintain and protect the quality of natural environment, thus contribute to sustainable environmental development. Thus, studies about green purchase behaviour are of paramount. This paper aims to propose a framework to investigate the relationships between attitudes, subjective norms, perceive behavior control, product knowledge, price and green purchase intention among consumers in Malaysia by using an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model. The extensions and modifications to the original TPB structure helps to identify potential factors that affect consumers' willingness to purchase green products. Questionnaire is the main instrument for data collection and multiple regression analysis will be used for data analysis. Purchase intention is an important predictor of purchase behavior. Using the findings of the study, marketers could strive to improve the factors that increase their customers' purchase intention to target the right segmentation for the best response.